Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday formed a committee of two High Court judges and the Principal Secretary of the Women and Child Welfare Department to look into the modifications made to the Manodhariya scheme.
Compensation changes
The modified version of the scheme for victims of rape, sexual assault and acid attack victims makes Aadhaar card mandatory to release the compensation. The scheme has increased the amount from ₹3 lakh to ₹10 lakh, but only 25% will be given to the victim outright and 75% will be put in a fixed deposit for 10 years. If the victim is a minor, the fixed deposit will be for 20 years. The amount paid to the family of a victim who dies of sexual assault or rape is only ₹1 lakh, while for a victim who suffers grievous injury or mental trauma or is gang-raped, it is ₹10 lakh.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N.M. Jamdar was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations, one of them filed by the Majlis Manch. The organisation has called the scheme regressive and that it has scrapped a deadline for the compensation to be paid to a victim. Instead, it sets a three-month deadline for the victim to provide documents for compensation.
‘No rationale’
The court said that there was “no rationale and proper application of mind in the recent modification to the Manodhairya scheme”.
The court directed that a committee of Justices Mridula Bhatkar and Girish Kulkarni and the Principal Secretary of the Women and Child Welfare Department be formed to hear all stakeholders. The court directed the committee to consult NGOs and submit a model and comprehensive scheme.
